The City of West Hollywood celebrates April as National Poetry Month with a series of events and projects curated by our first City Poet, Steven Reigns.

Click here for more information on the West Hollywood City Poet program. 

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West Hollywood Poetry Month Projects

Click here to download the flyer as a PDF.

Poetry in Lights

Friday, April 1, 2016 – April 30, 2016

Two electronic billboards in West Hollywood will showcase poets throughout the month of April for National Poetry Month.  See their poem excerpts and portraits in lights. Click on the locations below for biographical information on the poets or scroll down. #poetryinlights

• West Hollywood Gateway (7100 Santa Monica Boulevard)
• 1 OAK (9039 W. Sunset Blvd.)

 West Hollywood Poetry Bookmarks

Friday, April 1, 2016 – April 30, 2016

Distributed for free at West Hollywood Library, City Hall, and locations throughout the city
Look for four different bookmarks representing the poetry lamppost banners honoring some of our best living poets.

 Lamppost Poetry Banners

Friday, April 1, 2016 – April 30, 2016

Throughout the month of April, lamppost banners will be displayed on Santa Monica Boulevard from Sweetzer to Westbourne highlighting some of our best living poets. #lamppostpoetry

 

Kim Dower Book Release Party

Sunday, April 3, 2016, 4:00pm
Book Soup, 8818 W. Sunset Boulevard

Poet and West Hollywood resident Kim Dower’s book release party and reading for her collection Last Train to the Missing Planet. Free admission.

 

City Council Proclaims April National Poetry Month 

Monday, April 4, 6:30pm
West Hollywood City Council Chambers/Public Meeting Room
625 N. San Vicente Boulevard

The City Council will proclaim April National Poetry Month at their regular City Council Meeting with City Poet Steven Reigns in attendance.

 

Senior Moments Writing Workshop

Monday, April 11, 2016, 2:00pm - 4:00pm
West Hollywood Library Community Room
625 N. San Vicente Boulevard

This workshop will help writers, novice to experienced, generate new work for the Senior Moments annual publication. City Poet Steven Reigns, having taught senior writing workshops for a decade, will lead this free supportive workshop. Sponsored by The City of West Hollywood's Social Services Division. To RSVP email croskin@weho.org.

 

    WeHo Arts
    Poetry Writing Workshop
    Thursday, April 21, 2016, 7:30pm
    West Hollywood Library Community Room
    625 N. San Vicente Boulevard

Expect a supportive environment where you learn to write poetry without doubt or blocks.  Perfect for first-timers or prolific poets. You don't need to know the rules of grammar, or spelling, or have a large vocabulary. All you need is a willingness to try, a pen, and paper. Writing workshop lead by WeHo City Poet Steven Reigns. Presented by the City of West Hollywood through WeHo Arts. No RSVP is necessary. Free admission.

 

Red Hen Press presents Jason Schneiderman, Brendan Constantine, & Katherine Coles

Monday, April 25, 2016, 7:00pm
Book Soup, 8818 W. Sunset Boulevard

Three Red Hen authors read from their respective collections. Free admission.

 

WeHo Community Plaza Art Installation

City Hall Community Plaza, located between the City Hall Automated Parking Structure and City Hall, 8300 Santa Monica Boulevard

Three large vinyl art banners display a unique artistic collaboration between Steven Reigns, City Poet 2014-16, and local artist MONCHO1929. The work touches on the duality of a frozen moment in time and hints at personal and community ideals related to freedom and motion.

 

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Poetry in Lights

In celebration of National Poetry Month, the City of West Hollywood will be showcasing a series of images and quotes from living poets on digital billboards at 7100 Santa Monica Blvd. and 9039 West Sunset Ave through the month of April. This series of quotes and images is curated by City Poet Steven Reigns.

 

Sunset Billboard Poets:

 Steven Reigns is a Los Angeles-based poet, educator, and was appointed the first City Poet of West Hollywood in October of 2014. Alongside over a dozen chapbooks, he has published the collections Inheritance (Sibling Rivalry, 2011) and Your Dead Body is My Welcome Mat (Burning Page Press, 2001). He holds a BA in Creative Writing from the University of South Florida, a Master of Clinical Psychology from Antioch University, and is a nine-time recipient of The Los Angeles City's Department of Cultural Affairs' Artist in Residency Grant program. He edited My Life is Poetry, featuring his students in the first-ever autobiographical poetry workshop for LGBT seniors, and has taught writing workshops around the country to LGBT youth and people living with HIV. Visit him at www.stevenreigns.com.

 

Laurel Ann Bogen is the author of 11 books of poetry and short fiction including Psychosis in the Produce Department: New and Selected Poems 1975-2015 from Red Hen Press. Since 1990 she has been an instructor of poetry and performance for the UCLA Extension Writers’ Program and is a founding member of the critically acclaimed poetry performance ensemble, Nearly Fatal Women.

 

Bryan Borland is founder and publisher of Sibling Rivalry Press and founding editor of Assaracus: A Journal of Gay Poetry. He is the author of three collections of poems, DIG, Less Fortunate Pirates, and My Life as Adam. He is a Lambda Literary Fellow in Poetry and has been honored as both poet and editor by the American Library Association through multiple inclusions on its annual Over the Rainbow list of recommended LGBT reading. He lives in Arkansas. www.bryanborland.com

 

Chiwan Choi is the author of The Flood (Tía Chucha Press) and Abductions (Writ Large Press). His most recent project was Ghostmaker, a book he wrote, presented, and destroyed during the course of 2015. Chiwan is also a founding partner at Writ Large Press, a DTLA based indie publisher.

 

Peggy Dobreer came to poetry by way of dance and experimental theater.  She offers private E=Mc2Bodied Poetry Workshops, and teaches with Writers In The Schools for Red Hen Press. Her first manuscript, In The Lake of Your Bones was published by MoonTide Press in 2012 and she was nominated for a pushcart in 2014 by Cadence Collective Anthology. Peggy's work is upcoming in the first Aeolian Harp Folio Series. For contact and bookings go to www.peggydobreer.com

 

Blas Falconer is the author of The Foundling Wheel and A Question of Gravity and Light. He is the Poetry Editor for The Los Angeles Review and teaches in the low-residency MFA at Murray State University. His third poetry collection, Forgive the Body This Failure, is forthcoming in 2018.

 

Alexis Rhone Fancher’s poem, “when I turned fourteen, my mother’s sister took me to lunch and said:” was chosen by Edward Hirsch for inclusion in The Best American Poetry of 2016. She is the author of How I Lost My Virginity To Michael Cohen and other heart stab poems, (Sybaritic Press, 2014), and State of Grace: The Joshua Elegies, (KYSO Flash Press, 2015). Find her poems in Rattle, The MacGuffin, Slipstream, Wide Awake: Poets of Los Angeles, Chiron Review, HOBART, and elsewhere. Since 2013 she’s been nominated for six Pushcart Prizes and four Best of The Net awards. Alexis is poetry editor of Cultural Weekly, where she also publishes a monthly photo essay, The Poet’s Eye. alexisrhonefancher.com

 

Glenis Redmond is the Poet-in-Residence at The Peace Center for the Performing in Greenville, SC and at the State Theatre in New Brunswick, NJ. Her most recent post was the Mentor Poet for the National Student Poets Program. She coached the five National Poets to read for Michelle Obama at the White House. www.glenisredmond.com

 

Aaron Samuels, raised in Providence Rhode Island by a Jewish mother and a Black father, is a Cave Canem Fellow and a nationally acclaimed performer. He has been featured on TV One’s Verses & Flow, NBC’s The Today Show, and has appeared in multiple publications including the Crab Orchard Review and the BreakBeat Poets Anthology.  His debut collection of poetry, Yarmulkes & Fitted Caps was released on Write Bloody Publishing in fall 2013.   More information can be found at: http://aaronsamuelspoetry.com/

 

Lynne Thompson is author of two full length poetry collections, Beg No Pardon and Start With A Small Guitar, as well as three chapbooks.  Her poetry has been widely anthologized, including in the forthcoming Tia Chucha Press anthology, Coiled Serpent.  A recipient of the 2015-16 City of Los Angeles Fellowship, Thompson is Reviews & Essays Editor of the journal, Spillway.

 

Lawrence Wilson is a member of the Los Angeles News Group editorial board, for which he writes editorials in nine Southern California newspapers, and a twice-weekly column. He studied poetry at UC Berkeley, where he was a founding editor of the Berkeley Poetry Review and received an A.B. in English.

 

Cecilia Woloch is an NEA fellowship recipient and the author of seven collections of poems, most recently Earth (Two Sylvias Press 2015) and Tzigane, le poème Gitan (Scribe-l’Harmattan, Paris 2014), as well as a novel, Sur la Route (Quale Press 2015). Based in Los Angeles, she teaches throughout the U.S. and around the world. www.ceciliawoloch.com

 

 Gateway Billboard Poets

 
Frank Adams is a Lambda Literary Foundation fellow in Poetry.  His poems have appeared in Q Review; Down-go Sun; Micro Delights; Glitterwolf; Iris; Poetry for All and in the anthology, Between: New Gay Poetry.  He is the author of Crazy Times; Mother Speaks Her Name; Love Remembered; Shadows, Mist & Fog; Strangers, Men & Boys, and of a chapbook, Marilyn.

 

Marie Chambers is a Southerner by birth and an Angelino by choice.  Publication credits include: The LA Review of Books, Talking Writing, The Ilanot Review, The Quotable, The Iron Horse Literary Review and others. She's the 2014 winner of the Tallahassee Writers Association creative nonfiction prize. Chambers is also a winner of the 2015 ARTlines2 Ekphrastic Poetry Contest judged by Robert Pinsky. chambersprojects.net

 

Stuart Denenberg is an art dealer, musician, inventor, producer, and poet.  Born and raised North of Boston. Moved to California 33 years ago to marry Beverly. Formative schools: Bowdoin College, Stockholm University, Harvard College, Wesleyan University, University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Languages other than English include French, Italian, and Swedish. His Hebrew name, Shalom, means Peace.

 

Kim (Freilich) Dower was born and raised in New York City and received a BFA in Creative Writing from Emerson College, where she also taught creative writing.  Her first collection of poetry, Air Kissing on Mars, (Red Hen Press, 2010) was on the Poetry Foundation’s Contemporary Best Sellers list. Slice of Moon, her second collection, (Red Hen Press, 2013), nominated for a Pushcart, was called, “unexpected and sublime,” by “O” magazine. Kim’s work has been featured in Garrison Keillor's, "The Writer's Almanac," and Ted Kooser's, "American Life in Poetry.” Her poems are included in the anthology, Wide Awake: Poets of Los Angeles and Beyond.  She teaches in the B.A. Program of Antioch University and she lives in West Hollywood, California.  www.kimdowerpoetry.com

 

Charles Flowers received his MFA in Poetry from the University of Oregon. His poems have appeared in Gulf Coast, Barrow Street, Indiana Review, and Puerto del Sol. Flowers is the founding editor of BLOOM, a journal for queer writing (www.bloomliteraryjournal.org).

 

 
Ramón García is the author of The Chronicles (Red Hen Press, 2015), Other Countries (What Books Press, 2010) and Ricardo Valverde (University of Minnesota Press, 2013).  He has published poetry in a variety of journals and anthologies.  He is a professor at California State University, Northridge and lives in Los Angeles. Here is his latest book.

 

 
Ali Liebegott has published three books: The Beautifully Worthless, The IHOP Papers, and Cha-Ching! She is the recipient of two Lambda Literary Awards and a Ferro-Grumley Award. She has read and performed her work throughout the United States and Canada with the legendary queer literary tour Sister Spit. In collaboration with Michelle Tea and Elizabeth Pickens she created The RADAR LAB, a free queer writer's retreat from 2009-2013. In 2010 she took a train trip across America to interview poets for a project called The Heart has many Doors--. She currently lives in Los Angeles and writes for the Emmy Award-winning show Transparent.

Beth Lapides is the creatrix, host and producer of UnCabaret.  She has appeared in and on Comedy Central, Sex and The City, The Today Show, Politically Incorrect, NPR’s All Things Considered. She’s hosted her own daily radio show and is currently hosting her podcast, Life And Beth. As an actress she is generally typecast as an offbeat authority figure. Beth has toured her award winning one person shows, including her current show 100% Happy 88% of the Time, internationally. She’s an author and her writing has appeared in a number of anthologies as well as O Magazine, Time, LA Yoga, LA Times, Elle Decor. Her one of a kind artist’s books were exhibited at The Metropolitan Museum of Art Library

 

Stephen S. Mills is the author of the Lambda Award-winning book He Do the Gay Man in Different Voices (Sibling Rivalry Press, 2012) and A History of the Unmarried (Sibling Rivalry Press, 2014). He earned his MFA from Florida State University. He is also the winner of the 2008 Gival Press Oscar Wilde Poetry Award and the 2014 Christopher Hewitt Award for Fiction. He lives in New York City. Website: http://www.stephensmills.com/

 

Jasmine Williams is a poet, actress, playwright, and director from Los Angeles, CA. She is a graduate of San Francisco State University, where she received her B.A. in Dramatic Arts. She has been featured on Verses and Flow (TV One) , Politicon, All Def Digital, Brave New Voices (HBO), and the Pan African Film Festival just to name a few. She is currently one of the hosts of "Da Poetry Lounge", one of the largest spoken word and open mic venues in the country. Jasmine creates art to inspire and amplify the voices of those brave enough to be heard. IG: @Jrwilliams33

 

Steven Reigns is a Los Angeles-based poet, educator, and was appointed the first City Poet of West Hollywood in October of 2014. Alongside over a dozen chapbooks, he has published the collections Inheritance (Sibling Rivalry, 2011) and Your Dead Body is My Welcome Mat (Burning Page Press, 2001). He holds a BA in Creative Writing from the University of South Florida, a Master of Clinical Psychology from Antioch University, and is a nine-time recipient of The Los Angeles City's Department of Cultural Affairs' Artist in Residency Grant program. He edited My Life is Poetry, featuring his students in the first-ever autobiographical poetry workshop for LGBT seniors, and has taught writing workshops around the country to LGBT youth and people living with HIV. Visit him at www.stevenreigns.com.

 

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 For more information on WeHo Arts literary projects or the City Poet Program, click here or contact Mike Che, Economic Development and Cultural Affairs Coordinator at mche@weho.org, 323-848-6377.

Steven Reigns has been a driving literary force as City Poet. His term will end in October 2016 and WeHo Arts invites poets to self nominate here by July 14, 2016.